Sunday, October 9, 2011

The Hatter shook his head mournfully. `Not I!' he replied. `We quarrelled last March--just before HE went mad, you know--' (pointing with his tea spoon at the March Hare,)
`--it was at the great concert given by the Queen of Hearts, and I had to sing

"Twinkle, twinkle, little bat!

How I wonder what you're at!"

You know the song, perhaps?'

`I've heard something like it,' said Alice.

`It goes on, you know,' the Hatter continued, `in this way:--

"Up above the world you fly,

Like a tea-tray in the sky.

Twinkle, twinkle--"'

-- Chapter 7, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

At The Altered Alice we celebrate Mad Hatter's Day twice a year as the date is taken from the price on his hat - ten schillings and a sixpence or 10/6. That means it is on October 6 here in the United States, and on June 10 in the United Kingdom. But mainly it is just a great reason to party with the Mad Hatter twice a year! Your challenge is to celebrate the Mad Hatter, and as OPTIONS you can use something that twinkles or shines AND/OR you can bring some spookiness into it since we are all having a "Twinkle twinkle little bat" sing-along around our mad tea table!

Our prize this month is an A5 sized unmounted stamp set from IndigoBlu (a £13 value), or an equivalent amount of A6 stamps. IndigoBlu is a fantastic new British stamp company that makes "Quintessential English Rubber Stamps" right there in England.

In fact IndigoBlu is sponsoring The Altered Alice for October AND November, and the design team will be working with these two fantastic Alice stamp sets, titled appropriately "Alice I" and "Alice II". Most Americans don't know what A5 and A6 mean so I'll just tell you, these sets are huge!

I encourage you to go visit IndigoBlu.com. All stamps are on sale right now with their introductory pricing, but that won't last forever, and the designs are all wonderful! In addition, the Head Honcho Alfie says The Altered Alice readers can take 10% OFF during the challenge; just use coupon code AlteredAlice in the voucher code box at checkout! Thanks Alfie!

For my project I made a packing tape purse. I got the idea and instructions from the book Kaleidoscope: Ideas & Projects to Spark Your Creativity.

I found my destiny cards (tarot cards) at a yard sale.

You need good quality clear packing tape for this project.

First, cut strips of packing tape a couple inches wider than the back side of your purse. Lay them sticky side up, overlapping the tape strips by about 1/2". Carefully lay your cards onto the tape face up. Then I added my images and embellishments. Now more tape on the front side to cover it and you (guessed it) more tape to minter the corners to form the purse. I used decorative tape for my edges and corners. I covered cardstock with more tape for the handles and added grommets for a little added strength. Did you notice the tape on the bottom is Alice tape? I've had it for a long time, finally a chance to use it.

You have until Friday, October 21 to enter your creation at The Altered Alice and the winner and honorable mentions will be announced on the last Sunday of the month.

4 comments:

You have done it again; this is such a COOL project! Love it that it is actually functional! Everything coordinates so perfectly, it looks like it was all made to go together! Great job on thinking outside the box!